HOLMES TOWNSHIP - Finally, these seniors can say they've won a tournament game.

Wynford's five seniors had yet to win in the postseason in their careers, but that changed Monday night as the Lady Royals came from behind to beat Crestline 4-3 in the sectional semifinal.

"It means a lot," Jenna Coffman said. "Being my senior year, playing for all four years and never getting over that hump, it has just always been disappointing. Finally, in my senior year, it's a great feeling."

Coffman belted the game-winning hit into left field in the bottom of the sixth after Madi Wagner and Victoria Hoerig reached base the two previous at-bats. Her shot to left was bobbled by Sydney Weisman, then dropped, allowing both base runners to score and Coffman to round the bases for what would be the decisive run.

"If we had made that play, it would've been our game," Crestline coach Patti Huber said. "One really bad spot, that's it. Learn from it and move on to next year, that's all we can do."

Crestline took the lead just three batters in after Michaela Jeffrey hit a lead-off double, then was brought in by Lydia Tadda's triple. Desi Naveja's single in the third spot plated Tadda.

From this point on, Wynford pitcher Hannah Messmer settled down and allowed just one hit and struck out 12 batters in a near-perfect performance.

"We just focused her in a little bit, I tell her all the time to believe in yourself, we're huge on that," Wynford coach Jamee Burke said. "The girls all have signs in their bags that say 'I believe in you' that I made them. That's one of our biggest things with them. The motto is 'When nobody else believes, believe in yourself' and I told them to never believe that; we'll always believe in you as coaches.

"We told her be harder to hit ... and I think she really showed that with the 12 strikeouts and to be mentally tough throwing from behind and keep getting outs, I was very proud of her."

The Wynford sophomore pitcher said she has a trick to calm herself down during games.

"I have a reset word in my head and I figured I had to locate the ball, that's all I can do," Messmer said. "I locate the ball and let my defense back me up."

After her team took the lead and she stepped back onto the slab in the top of the seventh, Messmer said she was confident she could get the three outs to close the game. Two strikeouts and a ground-out to first later, she did.

"I felt really good because I knew my defense was behind me," Messmer said. "I was pretty confident going out there because I knew they were going to back me up."

The loss could end Crestline's season with the only remaining game a non-league contest against Bucyrus, but depending on how the Lady Redmen's tournament goes, it could be canceled all together.

Huber, admitted it was an emotional moment with six seniors departing, including her daughter Madison, saying she got "choked up a bit."

"We'll start fresh next year. We have freshmen pitchers so hopefully they'll work in the summer offseason and get stronger; that's what we need," Huber said. "We'll just come back next year stronger, better, smarter and just see how it goes."

On the other side, Burke claimed her first postseason win as coach of the Lady Royals and couldn't contain her excitement to be in position to play for a sectional title.

"We've talked about the hype of this year and I feel like it's finally sunny and we're playing ball," Burke said. "We executed the small ball really well today and that was the difference for us ... Jenna coming up with that clutch hit, it's a wonderful feeling.

"We tell the girls, now is the fun part of the season. Luckily we have two days of practice before a sectional final at Seneca East. We've played them once. We didn't get that second game in yet, so we have a little bit of a scouting report to go off of."

Wynford travels to face Seneca East Thursday evening at 5 p.m. for the sectional championship.